Prologue in Sermons: December 8

 

To Those Afflicted By the Ill Will of Slanderers

December 8
 
(A Story About a Certain Priest, Slandered By a Bishop, Who Was Locked Up In Prison and Was Delivered By An Angel)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Many suffer harm through slanderers without their fault: they are deprived of a good name, or even lose their freedom, or suffer other punishments, all because of the sheer malice of the wicked. What could be more terrible than this? And where can one find the strength to endure it with fortitude? Slandered brethren! Without the will of God, not a hair of your head will perish. Believe that sooner or later the Lord will reveal your innocence; and reward your reproach with double glory.

Saint Gerasimos Mikragiannanitis as a Model for our Lives

 

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Papavarnavas

Saint Gerasimos the Mikragiannanitis was born in Droviani of Epirus in 1903 to pious parents. He was diligent, intelligent, and possessed a strong memory, which helped him progress in his studies and develop his gift for hymnography. He received his basic education in Piraeus and Athens, where he also met Saint Nektarios, Bishop of Pentapolis.

On August 15, 1923, he went to the Holy Mountain, specifically to the Cell of the Honorable Forerunner (Timiou Prodromou) in Little Saint Anna’s, where he submitted himself to Elder Meletios Ioannidis. On October 20, 1924, he was tonsured a monk. However, after five years his Elder left the Holy Mountain, and he remained alone. At that time, the presence of God became more palpable in his life. His only consolation was prayer and study. After about twenty years, he gained a small brotherhood of good fathers. Of course, during all the years he lived alone, he visited and sought counsel from experienced Elders, especially Elder Kallinikos the Spiritual Father, who lived in Katounakia. To him he showed the first Canon he had composed, and the Elder told him: “The Canon is excellent, but I tell you one thing: humility, humble-mindedness. Be careful, lest the devil wage war against you.”

Homily on the Woman Who Was Bent Over (Theophanes Kerameus)

On the Woman Who Was Bent Over

Tenth Sunday of Luke

By Archbishop Theophanes Kerameus of Taormina (+ 1152)

Drones are a kind of bee — slow and useless. So these creatures, when they see the bees flying above their hives and going out toward the meadows and gathering from the flowers that fine and downy substance which comes from the center of the flower’s corolla, from which they fashion the honeycomb with the wax and the sweetest honey — then precisely these drones, like bandits, or rather like thieves, rush into the hives and going inside devour the bees’ harvest, seizing it for themselves. And when they realize that the bees are returning to the hives, they flee for good, unable to defend themselves. Such also are the destroyers of the Church and those who plunder her possessions. They watch for the moment of our departure, and then enter in and ruin the things of the Church; and because they fear the strength of our words, they attempt to overcome us with speeches and ambushes — sometimes gathering in council in the courtyard of Caiaphas, and at other times in the temple of the Forerunner, forming a dreadful assembly, thus making the baptistry a place of plots.

Homily Two on the Tenth Sunday of Luke (St. John of Kronstadt)

Homily Two on the Tenth Sunday of Luke
(27th Sunday After Pentecost)

By St. John of Kronstadt

Today, the Gospel account was read of the Savior's healing of a crippled woman who had suffered from this affliction for eighteen years. The healing was accomplished by a word and the laying on of Jesus Christ's hands on the crippled woman (Luke 13:10–17).

Reading this story about the healing of the crippled or bent woman by the Savior, I recall, my brethren, the prayer of repentance of Manasseh, the king of Judea, in which he, confessing to God his iniquities, likens these iniquities to iron bonds that have so crippled him that he cannot lift up his head: "I am bound with many iron bonds, so that I cannot lift up my head." And, indeed, the bent woman mentioned in today's Gospel reading depicts all of humanity, crippled by sin, and signifies you and me, my brethren. The Savior who healed the woman from her crippling condition is also our Savior, who daily frees us from the bonds of sin. Ah, who among us has not experienced, does not daily experience, how our sins and the enemy of the human race cripple our souls, if not our bodies, preventing the soul from freely gazing toward its heavenly homeland, but forcefully bending it to the earth, clinging and even, as it were, nailing it to earthly goods and pleasures. Thus, the bent woman, healed by the Savior, signifies our soul, crippled by sin and the devil. 

December: Day 7: Teaching 2: Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan

December: Day 7: Teaching 2:
Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan
 
(The Holiness of the Temple of God)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Saint Ambrose of Milan, who is celebrated today, was the son of the ruler of Gaul and Spain. Even as an infant, Ambrose was already marked by a special incident: one day, while sleeping outdoors, a swarm of bees surrounded the sleeping infant, so much so that they even crawled into his half-open mouth. The swarm however flew away without causing the slightest harm to the child. 

After receiving an excellent education, Ambrose was appointed governor of the city of Milan. But his reign was short-lived. At the end of 374, the Bishop of Milan died, and a new bishop had to be elected. Disputes erupted; a crowd of people roared around the church where the bishop-electors had gathered. Ambrose, as a conscientious ruler, considered it his duty to pacify the popular unrest: he began to persuade the people, urging them to conduct the sacred task of electing a bishop peacefully and quietly. He was still speaking when a child's voice suddenly rang out from the hushed crowd: "Ambrose is the bishop!" And in response to this little voice, the entire congregation unanimously exclaimed: "Ambrose is the bishop!" In vain, astonished, perplexed, and frightened by such an unexpected election, Ambrose refused, saying that he had not yet been baptized (at that time, baptism was sometimes postponed until mature years, even old age), that he, as an official, could not abandon his position, that he had not even thought about the episcopacy... The people repeated one thing: "Ambrose is the bishop!" After much hesitation, Ambrose finally agreed to be the bishop.